523

我的 xanga 站一早就發霉了，可我剛發現他們可以讓我上載音樂並製成輕便的 embeded player. 所以就趁機會為 523 增添一點音樂！（請看本 blog 右手邊位於本人 gamer card 上面的東東）

可能播的都不合大家口味，但都是自己的手機／車裡常備的歌，百聽不厭的！嘿嘿

currently playing — Stay With Me (pharrell feat. Pusha T)

有天放學開車回家路上，停下來等紅燈時發現巴士站的發光廣告牌，是個３字

只是用一堆 PS3 主機堆成一個３字就完了，很懶嘛

很想在街上看到 Wii 的宣傳品，可是還沒出現..

上星期一放了課，隨幾個友人到 main building 吃些東西聊聊天．因為這個學期沒有在那裡上的課，平日我都很少到 main building 去．難得去了，就把手機拿出來拍拍罷～

首先是門口附近的汽水機那邊的狀況.. 咦？４Ｐ發見..

看清楚，原來是無人不識的 Halo 2

上了二樓，本來想到沙發坐坐，但有一群衣著介乎於 emo/ punk 之間的同學們圍著電視

啊，Guitar Hero.. 其實是 Guitar Freaks 的美版，不過難度高一點，因為有五個鍵．還是玩 B4U, 月光蝶嗎？當然不行，曲目已經變成 Aerosmith, Ozzie Osbourne 等等了．同學覺得很新奇，我說早在六年前，已經有 Supersession 了 (DDR + BMIIDX + GF + KM + DM 大合奏），他說了一句：”Far Out!!!”

其後也找到有一幫人在一黑房內用播放電影用的投射幕來玩 Call of Duty 2.. 不知那個幕有多大，但肯定是一百吋以上… 我立刻轉身跟友人說：這個用來玩 FC 的 Duck Hunt 就酷斃！只見友人雙眼放光…

§ 索性把幾樣沒有關聯的事情都放到一個 entry 裏去, 懶…

§ 前幾天入手 Rockstar 新作 “Bully”, 封塵多時的美版 PS2 終於得到解脫!

§ “Bully” 開售兩天後我去一家大電器店找, 店員翻了良久才找到最後一隻. 他們說有很多中學生在開售那天特意蹺課然後跑去入手…

§ 有那麼誇張嗎? 其實可能沒有, 因為大家都到那家店買的原因應該是他們免費同梱了 “GTA Liberty Stories”. 我則是後知後覺, 去到才得知.

§ 包裝挺精美的, 還有大海報一張, 背面是地圖.

§ 遊戲本身方面, 絕對不需擔心 “Bully” 只是一隻換了皮的 GTA. 系統是全新的, 玩家可以和遊戲裏的 NPC 交談/ 挑釁/ 讚賞.. 等等. 很忠實地模擬了一個讀寄宿學校的學生生活~ 每天起床後可以去上課 (當然可以蹺課, 但若被風紀發現就會遭押解去上課) 上完兩堂課就可以自由活動, 去做做 mission 或者去欺負弱者

§ 上課其實是有用的, 並沒有像普通的 mini game 完成了就算. 例如在化學課成功達到老師的要求的話, 可以回自己房間製造砲仗, 臭彈, 痕癢粉等; 成功通過英語課的話, 談判能力將增加, 就是說可以容易跟敵人講和, 還有容易得到女孩子們的好感.

§ 最大的 bug 可以說是更衣方面, 在自己房間或者體育館的更衣室可以換成其他衣服, 但明明風紀們是嚴禁不穿校服的, 我卻成功以只穿內衣褲的情況下上課, 做任務甚至和女孩子聊天… 我決定一直都維持這身打扮了, 因為在很多 cut-scenes 裏都令我哭笑不得…

「小姐, 交個朋友?」
「好呀!」

§ 強烈建議各位對遊戲畫質沒太大要求的朋友務必要試試!

§ 上課方面, 現在每個星期二早上都不約而同地有「NDS 晨操時間」… 在大概八點, 大家等老師到來上課前, 就會紛紛拿出 DS 然後 wifi 一番. 老師講課時大家就很自律地暫時收起來, 待休息時又再奮戰.

§ 和一個同學對戰 Mario Kart, 慘遭「怒放」.. 大家也是正常地玩, 沒有蛇行, 但不知為何我經常連對方尾燈都看不到.

§ 還試過五人大戰 Starfox.. 很瘋狂, 我頭一次玩的.

§ 認識了一位很熱衷 360 的朋友 Greg, 說他熱衷的原因是他幾乎什麼遊戲都玩過 (連 Lego Star Wars 2 也入手). Gamer score 有五千多… 他問我玩過 Dead Rising 沒有, 因為那遊戲他覺得很不錯, 我說還沒機會試呢.. 誰知他二話不說, 隔天就把 Dead Rising 帶來借我.. 還帶了 N3 說讓我試試什麼叫爛遊戲

§ 起初以為他只是和我差不多, 基本上是學生一個. 和他聊天才發現原來他已經工作了一段時間, 而且還是在一些超大的炕洞附近駕駛有三層樓高的卡車! 他告訴我的一些工作經歷讓我嘖嘖稱奇, 比如說看過一些超大型的機器 (足有太古城中心那麼大的面積), 在下雨地滑的環境下工作差點連人帶車掉進有十層樓深的礦洞裏… 還有連續工作 15 小時從晚上六點到早上九點, 賺了四百多塊, 在他以前住的地方, 還經常看到北極光…

§ 很羨慕他有這麼多人生經歷呢, 這些故事是我在大學時從未聽過的.

§ 奇怪的是他還能這麼熱衷地玩遊戲, 真佩服了.. 相比起來我實在太遊手好閒了!

§ 已經跟他相約了 Gear of War 推出之時大家到 LIVE 大戰一番.

§ 昨天清晨五點才睡, 因為 Intro of Design 要我們畫二十張構思不同但訊息一致的設計圖… 我幾乎把頭都炸了! 幸好今天老師看過後, 一致通過滿分

§ 所以今天是喪屍狀態, 狂喝咖啡沒用. 五點下課時我還念念有詞回到家一定先睡夠才說, 但現在看到 Greg 借我的 Dead Rising 放在桌上, 又有點動搖了..

§ 找到兼職了! 下回分解

Ubisoft 是近年來其中一個最熱門的遊戲開發公司之一, 昨天剛剛開售了間諜遊戲 Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Xbox360) 反應轟動. 在 E3 ‘06 公佈的 Assassin’s Creed 也令很多人感興趣.

我在學校裏發現兩個在遊戲雜誌上不會看到的廣告, 昨天終於想起帶相機去拍下了, 和大家分享一下…

“Why Ubisoft?” 然後就是一大堆小字, 我為了把所有都讀完, 都不知被經過的人撞到多少次… (因為海報貼在一個小小的 T 字路口的門上)
聽說他們上個月才來過學校招聘, 和 EA 相比我絕對傾向 Ubisoft. 為什麼? 自己讀小字嘍

是 Splinter Cell 廣告嗎? 非也.. 廣告標語是 “So real, it renders fear” 你會認為 Ubisoft 光賣遊戲就夠賺了, 人家眼光才沒那麼短呢, 一個遊戲引擎是可以賣很多錢的.

Intro to Game Development 課的第一份功課.. 我不是誇張，但我真是很享受寫的過程（但不認同必需給予分數的評論）．不過畢竟是用英語，略嫌不夠痛快．我也很久沒寫這種東西嘍.. 各位有空的話不妨讀讀爛文一篇～！

Game Review: Saint’s Row (Xbox 360)

Introduction:

Published by THQ, Saint’s Row is the latest project from Volition, the company that brought us titles such as The Punisher and Red Faction. Being a combination of third-person action and an open-ended game that does not have a linear storyline, this game is inevitably often compared to the Grand Theft Auto series by Rockstar. The game features a main plot, accompanied by various side missions as well as a detailed customization scheme for the user character and the vehicles in the game. A large selection of weapons and vehicles will be available, as well as a huge city for the player to explore in. Besides exploiting the advantage of the Xbox 360 power by allowing gamers to enjoy the visuals at 720p resolution, Saint’s Row is the first of its kind to offer online multiplayer gameplay for up to 8 players on Xbox Live.
The story begins with you being the newest member of the gang Third Street Saint’s, followed by appearances of other main characters including the members of the other three gangs in the city. As the story unfolds, the gamer is given a choice to prioritize his goals to eventually dominate the whole city. Paralleled plotlines combined with various side missions offer a unique path and pace for each gamer.

Visual/ Presentation: 8/10

Before actually engaging into the game, one can already find the graphics and 3D effects in Saint’s Row much better than its competition, given that the game is able to run at a high resolution of 720p on a HDTV. The pause menu is very user friendly, providing virtually all the information the gamer needs to begin his journey. On-screen display items are well equipped as well, saving players the trouble to always having to press pause to look for certain information.
Real time rendered cut-scenes fill the gap in-between missions, unlike titles such as “Mafia” which uses pre-rendered CG movies for cut-scenes. This increases the player’s immersion into the game.
The action control scheme is rather easy to get familiar with, and is pretty neat both when the character is on foot or driving in a car. Unfortunately the game suffers from a clumsy camera angle control, which can be a pain during events such as a car chase or a heated battle.
Despite of the fact that the polygons in game are quite solid and consistent, there are rare occasions where slowdowns are observed (e.g. in one of the mayhem side missions where the player needs to demolish everything in sight using a rocket launcher.).

Gameplay and Progression: 7/10

Fully customizable character allows creativity and breaks the “Tommy mold” in all open-ended games, you can now choose to roam the neighborhood as an obese albino.
A “respect meter” is placed in the corner of the screen, which will rise whenever the player successfully accomplish things that will bring up the morale of the Saint’s Row gang. These things include attacking enemy gang members, the police, or completing side missions. As a consequence for raising your “respect meter”, the count in your “hate meter” will also rise, which works very similarly to the accumulation of “police stars” in the Grand Theft Auto series.
The game lets players progress in their own pace, and into their desired directions. One can conquer all the side missions first, or choose to defeat one of the three opposing gangs. Difficulty is relatively low, proven by features such as the ability to carry food in addition to weapons, as well as certain places on the map that allow players to zero their hate meters at a price. Getting away from killing cops has never been easier.
Saint’s Row features some original ideas when it comes to side missions, some of them can be really amusing. One of the side missions is called “Insurance Fraud” in which the player has to go to a designated area where no one obeys the traffic laws, the player then has to catch the perfect moment to run out on the streets and hopefully receive a severe crash by vehicles. More money is earned if the crash results in more damage. This particular also fully showcase the game’s advanced ragdoll physics engine, which longer gives the gamer a rehearsed set of motions everytime. Some of the other side missions are your typical “hitman”, “mayhem” and “car race” types.
A cell phone in the game allows you to call up your buddies which will come to assist you if they are available, which can be very helpful in some of the missions. Player can also recruit members of the Third Street Saint’s who usually appear on the streets of the Saint’s territories.
A good feature is the level up system of the character. Upon successful completion of missions or acquisition of territories, the gamer receive more support by gang members or a new helper on his cell phone name list, rather than power-ups for the character himself. This way the gamer will tend to always depend on partners while doing a mission, rather than becoming a powerful but solo gunman.
Online multiplayer support (up to 8 players) provides not only deathmatch and co-op games, but most importantly the feeling of “fighting as a gang member” to the gamer.
Some of the shortcomings of the game include a short storyline and the lack of depth in the side missions. The difficulty of each side mission can only be raised to the eighth level, and maxes out after that. There is also a lack of different things to do in this well-built city, due to the fact that land vehicles are the only transportation in game. Things will be a lot more different if the player gets to drive a speedboat or a mini plane.

Audio: 6/10

The majority of soundtrack in the game will be the music and chatter from the car radio, which are well recorded but can be annoying. The game also does not want the gamers to play their own music in the player, apparently wanting gamers to find the 60 hidden CDs in order to unlock special music, or simply walk into a virtual record store to purchase a tune. If sounds from one radio are enough to drive you nuts, avoid a gang war at all cost because one does not need to sit in a vehicle in order to hear the radio.
The sound effects and the voice acting are done decently, however.

Conclusion:

Saint’s Row is definitely a worthy competition of the Grand Theft Auto series, with enough unique features to stand on its own instead of duplicating its opponent. The variety of side missions as well as the enhanced game elements such as better graphics and physics engine will definitely give gamers something that other open-ended games cannot.
This game takes over all other open-world games in many aspects, and is the perfect title for those who think the difficulty in Grand Theft Auto games is way too insane.
The slight lack in depth of the game should never prevent players to give this title a try – just the customizable characters and online multiplayer modes alone will be sufficient in order to keep one’s fingers crossed for a sequel.

Total score: 7.5/10

最近接二連三地發現一些背景不明的電影續集，有些是第一集獲得好評，有些則完全令人費解出現續集的理由．

第一集並沒有太大回響，現在連一時當紅的小生 Ashton Kutcher 也不是主角．只能說「勇氣可嘉」

初集反應很不錯，這個則評價一般．

山埃大導 Uwe Boll 的垃圾居然有人肯繼承，還要不是他本人

今天(星期一)是感恩節假期, 剛好讓我寫寫東西.

期待已久的新學校, 上了一星期的課. 相信我心中最需要知道的, 都不免是「是否適合我?」. 因為假若通過了面試, 一切手續辦妥, 學費也交了以後, 倘若第一個星期的學習就已經讓我覺得不對勁的話, 那就糟了…

幸好那個情況沒有發生! 我仍舊認為這就是我所需要的, 就算讓我在另一所大學讀個四年, 也跟這個不能相提並論. 先看看我的五堂課究竟是什麼內容:

課堂大概分成三類, 首先有以集體討論為大前提的 Interactive storytelling 和 Intro to Game Development, 這兩課的主要課題是讓大家交流. 我在大學的時候也有這樣的討論小組, 但其實我不太喜歡, 因為我用英語來辯論不夠傳神. 但現在這兩課剛好讓我鍛鍊這一項, 老師在課裏的時間主要要大家走上前來站在老師的位置, 然後向著整班分享自己的想法. Interactive storytelling 的最終目的是想我們學會寫劇本, 而 Intro to Game Development 則是對業界增加認識, 還有學習評論遊戲, 我比較喜歡這個, 因為如其說是師生之間的交流, 倒不如說是「業餘人仕和業界人仕的交流」因為老師是 EA Sports 的 developer.

然後就是 Intro to Design, 學設計的概念和一些技巧. 這類是需要我們在課上畫畫的堂, 我都不知有多少年沒畫畫了…

最後一類就是對一個程式員來說最重要的數理課還有電腦課, Math & Physics 還有 Intro to Computer. Math & Physics 是基本的中學數理, 沒什麼大問題 (雖然很基本, 但原來一些很初級的數學定律對於編程很有用, 老師在教 sine law/ cosine law 的時候就說過他前幾天幫一個同事進行把 Wii-mote 和電視屏幕準確定位的時候就已經應用到). 可 Intro to Computer 就比想像中困難一點, 因為第一課已經在使用 MS Visual Studio, 我的同學們好像很多都很有編程經驗.

五堂課的一開始都是老師學生互相認識的時間, 所以我一共把自己介紹了五次… 其中一次還出現小插曲: 在 Intro to Game Dev. 課中, 每人自我介紹後老師也會問他們一些問題, 比如問你最近在玩哪個遊戲, 最喜歡的遊戲, 找工作的目標等… 他問我最近在玩什麼, 我說 FFXII. 坐席中有個同學問: 「是日版還是美版?」我說日版啊, 美版不是月底才推出嗎… 忽然我知道發問者想做什麼了, 我心裏還替他著急: 「千萬不要在有業界人士在場的情況下說出…」可惜已經太晚了, 對方得意地回應:「我已經在玩美版了!」

是一大清早的冷凍空氣讓人智商急降嗎? 那個臭美的讓整個班房的氣氛都改變了, 然後就是老師一番有關尊重知識產權的教訓, 害我作完自我介紹後也不敢牟然回座, 站在台上聽完才走. 老師還特意問我一下我的 FFXII 是在那裡買的…

大概就是這樣了, 我也認識了不少同學. 還有就是購入了一個 320Gb 的 Seagate HDD 加上一個 usb2.0+firewire enclosure 好讓我把學校跟家裏的電腦互相傳送東西 (有空的時候還可以帶著我的 Silent Hill 3 PC 版到學校的電腦上以 max resolution 攻略 )

下次 update 會有相片!

星期五去了新學校的迎新日．有機會與眾同學見見面之餘，自己覺得最重要是能聽聽身為業界人仕的 Game Programming 主任對於市場的看法．

首先是校長和其他頭頭的話，然後就是遊戲設計主任要說的話．我雖不知道他在業界的位置，但很有興趣了解一下他的一些觀點．他問了幾個問題，比如說「哪家公司在過去兩週間推出了新遊戲？」還有問大家為何 NDS 會成功．當被問及個人欣賞的遊戲或公司，他說他玩遍所有 Bioware 所出的遊戲，Final Fantasy 系列的故事也是他喜歡的．Rockstar 很不錯但他對 Bully 沒太大期望．最近一隻令他失望的遊戲是 Lego Star Wars II (NDS)，因為 bug 太多了．遊戲設計這行業是個日漸強大的行業，但競爭也是不斷在增加著．必須要 “Think competitively”

（注意 “Sequal to the” 的字體比 “Award Winning” 小得多…)

確實感受到這裡跟傳統大學的分別，看來大家也要帶著大量野心去前進呢．

之後就進了電腦房學學登入系統，工作環境等．由於每人只有 1G 的私人儲存空間，一定是不夠的，所以導師建議買一個外置 HDD. 我今天簡單比較了一下，這個如何呢？因為想同時擁有 usb 2.0 和 firewire 接駁．

最後在沒有事先安派的情況下，大家以 Unreal Tournament 2004 LAN party 來破冰！連導師也加入了.. 我發現自己已經很久沒用鍵盤滑鼠來玩 FPS 了，但未來可能機會多著．

後天就正式開始了，很興奮！！